Freeside Atlanta will be hosting an Open Source 3D Printing meetup. Like most events at Freeside this will be free and open to the public. We will have a number of 3D printers on hand to show off and will be building a new one during the meetup. This is a great opportunity for people to learn more about 3D printing and to see some printers in action. There will also be a special guest who operates ultimachine.com and has built a successful business around this emerging technology. Hope to see you there!

I finally had some time (around 2 hours or so) to sit down with the Egg Bot and work with straighting everything up and finally getting a good egg out of it. Trying to go to high or low on the egg just stretches the image out and makes the design on the egg look terrible. (see our first try of the FreeSide Logo on an egg )Different colors are done by creating layers in your image (like in photoshop), The software allows you to print one layer, change the color marker and then print the next layer, while remembering where it's at on the egg. As you can see in the above video, it works pretty well.

I came across this lovely bit of lost knowledge while cleaning out the space last week:

Wire recorders were a big deal in the 40's and 50's. They work by storing sound magnetically on a thin steel wire. The sound is great. The recording playing in the clip was taken off WSB radio almost 70 years ago and recorded to the wire. It sounds as if it was fresh off the air.

So why did this interesting spinning box go away? Several reasons. First, when you can cheaply make tape or vinyl, who wants to sell the latest top 40 hits in several hundred feet of steel wire? No one.

Next, hear that recording? Good, because that is the last time that particular wire will ever play. On the rewind it became tangled and unusable. Further research shows that this was a typical issue for users.

Finally, newer, better, and cheaper tech came out that spelled death for the wire recorders. Sure it survived a little while as a dict-a-phone or in radio studios, but in the end wire lost to tape.

Now if I can only find out who brought this in so I can give him/her/it credit...

This weekend's welding class is already full, but if you are interested in attending a future welding class just show up to our weekly meeting on Tuesdays @ 7:30pm to register. The MakerBot and Python classes are both free and open to the public, so feel free to show up and bring a friend.

Please keep in mind that your donations are what allow us to keep doing these classes for free.

GWOBorg is an international coalition of passionate problem solvers working together to assist people whose survival is threatened by lack of access to technology or communications due to violence, neglect, or catastrophe.

Dragon*Con is this coming up this weekend and it's been a regular topic of conversation around Freeside. A lot of Freeside members regularly attend Dragon*Con and this year some of us are even participating. At least three Freeside Memebers will be participating in a panel about 3D printing and rapid prototyping on the EFF Track. We plan to give an overview of the current state of DIY 3D printing, the future, and discuss some intellectuality property issues. We will have a MakerBot and RepRap Mendel for demonstrations. This panel is scheduled for 2:30pm on Friday 9/3.

You can also look for a few Freesiders in the parade driving a Delorean.

So if this is you first year attending Dragon*Con, or if you are a seasoned pro, you are sure to have a good time. If you see someone a Freeside shirt, don't be afraid to strike up a conversation!

On Thursday, we acquiredFreesides very own Busy Bee Lathe. Our good neighbor Walt helped me move it over the weekend as this sucker weighs in at over 1800 lbs. We will hopefully have this up and running soon and available for use by members. Walt has offered to help train us on how to use this in exchange that he can come over and drool on it from time to time.